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Notes

Written for Grant Anderson of the Concord Orchestra, Returning was a Christmas present from his wife, and an offering I made to the Concord Orchestra Auction/Fundraiser. Grant chose the wonderful poem Natural History as the inspirational source for this solo.

I described the piece this way when I delivered it to Grant:

“The motivic idea that I focused on was the repeated concert G, the home pitch to which the music frequently returns. Then there’s the idea of the gently descending line, in soft triplets and a quicker rising arpeggio.

“I waffled on adding expression marks. At first, I was going to leave it more open, but then it became clear to me that I was hearing specific dynamic-level moments. Altogether, though, interpret freely, molto espressivo throughout. You’re allowed to amend dynamics if you find a phrase shaping that you like better.